2018 EU LCS Summer Week 9 should’ve been boring. After all, the top teams had already been decided, and nothing could have changed the way things would turn out. Or, at least, that’s what we thought, because, apparently, the region had one final, action-filled mega punch in store for us.

We haven’t had this many upsets in the rest of the split combined, and the teams who had nothing to win gave it their all, making the 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 9 matches extremely interesting.

The continuous struggles had us witness a three-way tiebreaker between Schalke 04, G2 Esports and Vitality. Bottom tier teams suddenly started defeating the top talent in the region, and everything played out in such an unexpected manner that the whole event looked staged. Yet, the results are what they are, and no matter how much fans are in disbelief, we’ll have to deal with the outcome.

LeBlanc Mid is a Strong Pick Right Now

She seems to be a hidden OP champion who was simply waiting to be discovered. Her devastating abilities can be executed from a safe distance, allowing her to go in and out in the blink of an eye. Once ahead, she can completely take over the game with her insane burst damage, and that’s exactly what Jiizuke did against Misfits. Nisqy also abused LeBlanc pretty hard against ROCCAT, securing an easy win due to how easily he could delete the enemy Marksman, deciding teamfights before they even began.

Until she gets nerfed, she’ll keep being a high priority pick and ban champion due to how much of an impact she can have on games.

Along with Zoe and Akali, she’ll be treated as a dangerous champion to hand over to the opponent. This might be slightly unfair, however, as it’s probable that no one noticed the unholy amounts of damage coming from the Galio picks this week.

In any case, expect LeBlanc picks to increase in your solo queue games for some time.

How the 3-Way Tiebreaker Fiasco Started

H2K made history with their jaw-dropping victory against Schalke 04 this week. The 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 9 took a complete turn when H2K decided to go with a late game composition against Schalke 04. H2K is a team that needs to reach the late game in order to win, and struggles in the early game, which isn’t too difficult for Schalke 04 to deal with.

Lady Luck seemed to be keeping an eye out for H2K because they kept escaping with a sliver of health from S04 members.

Every time Schalke tried to go in for a kill, the skirmish or solo-kill attempt looked perfect until it suddenly wasn’t, and the H2K member was left fleeing with 10 HP. SmittyJ and Selfie went through this more than once, and these escapes lead to the game stalling, which was exactly what H2K wanted.

H2K have improved greatly since the start of the split

While Vizicsacsi could have been more engaging during the game, H2K deserves a lot of credit for their victory during this game. They were able to stall out perfectly, scale up, and then proceeded to destroy Schalke 04 in team fights. Some weaknesses in Schalke’s playstyle were exposed as they showed difficulty in making a comeback when they were behind. Caedrel came out huge for his team, and after taking a Baron from Schalke, H2K walked all over them.

This was the second victory for H2K for the entire split, and they somehow managed to win against what was arguably the best team in the region. By doing so, they plunged the region into chaos, even though they had no stakes in the match, seeing that there was no way for them to make it beyond the group stage now.

Some teams just want to watch the world burn.

Misfits Are Slipping Away from the Worlds

Misfits looked like a shoo-in to play in the 2018 Worlds earlier this split. They were going 9-0, and it truly seemed like they would breeze through the remaining season with no difficulties whatsoever. They seemed ready to represent the EU LCS in Worlds 2018 and were the silver bullet in this region’s gun.

After that, they started losing, and never looked back.

The 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 9 matches were a final nail in their coffin, figuratively, because they couldn’t sink lower in a single week. They had a 0-2 week, and this wouldn’t have been a problem if this wasn’t a recurring pattern with this team.

Last split, they couldn’t even make it to the playoffs even though they started off pretty well. This time, although they made it to the playoffs, they’re having an incredibly difficult time dealing with their opponents.

When Misfits swapped Mikyx out in the favour of Jesiz, they were certain that their worries were behind them, but nothing could be further from the truth. Jesiz couldn’t fill out the gap that Misfits had in their playstyle, and made things somewhat worse with botched shot-calling and passive plays. He was benched, and even though Mikyx had played aggressively this week, Misfits have some problems that can’t be fixed on such short notice.

The split is slowly turning into a nightmare for Misfits, and the single week before the semifinals hit might not be enough time for them to patch up and stand upright again. Unless they perform a miracle, they won’t be able to go past the EU LCS summer semifinals this year.

Unicorns of Love Went Out With a Bang

The Unicorns stated their disappointment of how things turned out for them this split. They said that they didn’t want a repeat of what happened during Spring, but, we can’t really turn back time now. However, they did mention that they want people to remember them, even after their year had ended.

What better way to do just that than beat the top team of the region.

There was no stopping the Unicorns during this game. They even started off by giving Fnatic a taste of their own medicine by ganking mid with 3 members right at the start of the game, claiming Caps’ life. They proceeded to play absolutely recklessly for the entire duration of the match and didn’t let up their pressure for even a single second.

This was the first game on Pyke that Hylissang lost this split, and it was poetic that it happened against Unicorns’ final match of the split. This team tried their utmost best to get a tiebreaker going between Fnatic and Schalke 04, but H2K had other plans in mind for the region. Exileh played like a complete beast throughout the game, diving into the enemy team on his Irelia. Other teams should keep it in mind to ban Irelia away from Exileh because his prowess on that champion is almost frightening at this point.

It’s strange to think about, but Rekkles didn’t have much of an impact during this game.

Vitality Is the Best Team in the EU LCS

Vitality’s confidence has skyrocketed. Let’s see if they can keep the momentum up. (Image via LoL Esports Flickr)

Vitality definitely displayed skills the likes of which we’ve been craving for a really long time. All of a sudden, due to H2K’s miracle, Vitality seized themselves the Bye and got to the semifinals before anyone realized what was happening. They’ve been winning for multiple games straight to get to the point where they are and defeated lots of top-tier teams along the way.

Kikis, Jiizuke, and the entire team, in general, played with such intellect and aggression that Perkz had to babysit Jankos to ensure he didn’t completely fall off. At the tiebreaker games, Vitality kept advancing relentlessly, keeping their tempo up regardless of what their opponents did.

Vitality didn’t give their opponents a fighting chance

Through smart macro outplays, Vitality were able to strong-arm their enemies to play by their rules.

When they were playing against Schalke 04, they had to face a scaling composition which was off to a good start. From there, they did what no one expected from them, and split pushed in an almost artistic manner which had Schalke confused all over the map. They did the same with G2 Esports, forcing them to be where they wanted them to be.

At the interview after the game was over, Vitality made sure to let the entire world know that they considered themselves to be the best team in the region by far, reiterating their words to get their point across.

If they can keep their current level of play going, they have a serious chance of winning the split this time around.

What did you think about how the regular split ended for the EU LCS this year? Did you find 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 9 as exciting and eventful as we did? Let us know in the comments below!